Comments on: The Transparent (Shopping) Societyhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php
Thoughts on the intersection of search, media, technology, and more.Thu, 17 Nov 2016 05:16:00 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.1By: Pavelhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22642
Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:00:06 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22642The future has arrived: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/technology/personaltech/25smart.html
]]>By: micheal leniukhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22641
Tue, 30 May 2006 23:49:59 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22641We have all brands of Mobile Phones for sell at cheap and affordable prices,in bulk and units they ranges from Nokia/Samsung/LG/Sony Ericsson/Motorola/Alcatel/panasonic, all Brands and Models of Nextel Phones,ipods, USB Flash Drive, Psp, MP3 Players,
Laptops, we want you to get back to us with your quote so that we can begin a good business relationship. Note they are all Brand New T2 Euro specs, unlocked, sim-free, no operator logo, come in their original sealed box, With 1 year international warranty from the manufacturer, English & Spanish manual, Finland made. We want to assure you that you will never regret buying from us because the delivery will be to your doorstep via FedEx Courier service.And the Tracking number shall be sent to you upon acknowledgement of your payment.

]]>By: Peter Slatehttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22640
Thu, 09 Dec 2004 19:56:18 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22640Or, according to the LATimes, you can subscribe to QPRwines.com to find the best values:http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-fo-matters8dec08,0,928089.column
]]>By: Ross@stapleton-gray.comhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22639
Mon, 06 Dec 2004 03:54:46 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22639That would presumably be Neomedia (NEOM) referenced above. I looked at their financials… looks like they have zero revenue, and a handful of people, after years of existence and a lot of accumulated losses, so it would be one of those “our patents will let us conquer the world” plays, and I wouldn’t put any money on it.

I’ve heard some fascinating stuff on the state of the whole EPCglobal/RFID root affair over the past week, suggesting that (1) lots of what I looked at in the CommerceNet white paper (which is out now, and can be found here) will be happening; but (2) only after EPCglobal comes to grips with a flawed revenue model.

In a nutshell, there’s no reason that product codes (UPCs, EANs, etc.) can’t be routed like domain names, and no reason it ought to cost any more either (i.e., each company spends on the order of less than $100 per year for *all* its codes, and not the $800 per code that Neomedia seems to be envisioning).

]]>By: Phyllis Dorminyhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22638
Sun, 05 Dec 2004 16:01:55 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22638John, Do you know about the small microcap company that is supposedly working with SAIC to register barcodes?

To be serious, yes, that sounds like a nifty new hack from eBay, and echos various other services from various other large players. I’m reminded a little of a chapter from Shoshana Zuboff’s “In the Age of the Smart Machine,” the case on “Global Bank Brazil” (a pseudonym), where she discussed the transformation of the bank from something that handled the borrowing and loaning of money, to something that had “gone meta,” i.e., also traded in information about trading in money.

Heading back toward a discussion of product codes as unique identifiers… why was it simplest for me to use Amazon.com as the target for that reference to Zuboff’s book, above? Not the primary source… that would be Basic Books, Inc. Amazon is, in its niche, something of the site of record for consumer product information, both from the manufacturer (including the sample pages) and from 3rd parties (e.g., product reviews, and the transactional data they mine from customers to show affinities). The white paper comments on all this, and examines how this may become less captive to the dominant retailers.

]]>By: MikeDhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22636
Thu, 11 Nov 2004 05:02:35 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22636Pricing from EBay tends to be for items in the used/collectible conditions.
Pricing from Amazon tends to be for items in the New condition.

There’s a Web Service at Amazon that looks up by UPC somewhere… can’t find it right this second.

]]>By: Tony Gentilehttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22635
Wed, 10 Nov 2004 23:37:00 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22635All the pricing data you need (short of CPGs, I suppose) was just released by eBay via a web service:

]]>By: Ross@stapleton-gray.comhttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22634
Wed, 10 Nov 2004 22:56:02 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22634Certainly SAIC got a good deal, but I don’t think it was much because of SAIC, perhaps apart from prescience. NETSOL was gifted with an exclusive government contract at the right time, and, whatever you think of all that, I don’t think you’ll see similar opportunities to mint money in this space. I’d also presume that any marketing savvy, vis-a-vis namespaces, went with them to VeriSign… SAIC is a large and capable (and employee-owned) company, but the markets it best understands are the public ones.

Lots of companies manage information keyed to bar codes (e.g., QRS and GXS, just to name the most prominent product catalog services vendors in EDI), and the world is moving away from proprietary services, and toward collaborative federations.

VeriSign won’t make big bucks off the Object Naming Service (ONS) that EPCglobal commissioned it to build and run (unless EPCglobal wrote a horrible contract)… they expect to make their money off all the services enabled by there being an ONS, e.g., their so-called EPC Discovery Services, EPC-IS hosting, etc., but those markets are open to many other players too.

]]>By: Scotthttp://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22633
Wed, 10 Nov 2004 10:45:14 +0000http://battellemedia.com/archives/2004/11/the_transparent_shopping_society.php#comment-22633To get a better handle of where we are headed, take a look at Japan. This is already being done their thru DoCoMo. The phone is becoming the remote control for everything. Its not an if, its a matter of when. You wont be typing lengthy URLS to get info, you will be taking a pic of a barcode, a created code, typing a word or word phrase, or number to get the desired content.

The cellphone browser will not be used for surfing so much, but for instant information with items in the physical world. You arent going to do a google for “Brittany Spears concert tickets Madison Square Garden Nov 4″, but you will click on any one of her CD’s and be able to buy them w/ one click in any Virgin music store or when you walk past a Brittany poster, or see an ad in Rolling stone magazine. ( I used Brittany because just like the applications ive described they arent here yet, maybe they will be when she starts touring again)..

RealNames WAS a great idea. There are a few reasons why it failed.
1. it was only words
2.it was tied to the PC (1 dimension)
3.it didnt include barcodes/rfid with words
4. it was good only for MS IE browser
5.MS was losing control of their browser (GOOG tool bar does this now, next step the desktop)

SAIC/Neom Word registry will be the AOL Keyword system for every web enabled device with every physical item in the world.

Brands not paying their bills to license the barcodes? Come on. The fee is insignificant. For a brand manager to “turn on” his codes, a figure 2-5x’s this would be very reasonable considering the apps that can come from it.

To give you a refresher on SAIC. They originally owned Network Solutions before it went public. NS was the original domain name registration co. Verisign bought NS out for over $10b. Now Verisign will be in charge of registering domains for rfid tags. Theres a reason SAIC is involved w/ this Word registry. This WILL change the whole keyword model for search engines.